


Shell With No Soul I

by Crowgirl



Series: Scars Remind Us [8]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Season 4 Spoilers, demon torture, vengeance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-12
Updated: 2011-10-12
Packaged: 2017-10-24 13:36:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/264053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowgirl/pseuds/Crowgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ongoing discussion, and ramifications thereof, between Dean and Castiel about the after-effects of Hell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shell With No Soul I

VIII.

The demon, a half-formed being of black cloud, crouches, coils of black smoke writhing and twisting about the confines of the devil’s trap.

Castiel pauses, waits for a moment, but when the demon does not speak again, he goes on intoning Latin.

The black cloud yanks back into itself and the demon shrieks. ‘Why are you doing this!’

Castiel does not find it necessary to answer the question.

Hunting down this _pet_ of Alastair’s had been easier than he thought; it was almost a question of “to ask and to have.” He had found it inhabiting a young woman in a town two states over, pushing her to torment herself and her high school classmates, threatening suicide one day, being discovered with her hand under the skirt of the captain of the girls’ basketball team the next. He could hear the girl’s terror: trapped in her own mind, she had no idea how to fight back against the thing that had taken control of her body.

‘Angel motherfucker!’

Castiel pauses again, then goes on, summoning up power to pin, to crush, to bind into the devil’s trap. This demon will not be sent back to Hell to emerge again, stronger, in a month’s time and torture afresh. No, he will keep it here: between a grove of mountain ash and a river, trapped, caught, sunk into the stone beneath the earth.

The cloud screams, shrieks, abuses.

Castiel continues.

‘I know you! I know why you’re doing this! That Winchester brat! He got you to find me!’

Castiel stops.

‘But what the fuck are you doing this to _me_ for!’ The writhing cloud of smoke assumes a head, a face, a plaintive tone of voice.

Castiel looks at it, not bothering to hide the glow of his Grace. If he scorches it, so much the better.

The face looks at him, then assumes an aspect that he thinks is meant to be cunning. ‘It wasn’t my fault. I followed my orders. You should--’

Castiel begins to speak again, more slowly this time, relishing the feel of the heavy syllables in his mouth, relishing what they will do to the demon. For every stripe on Dean’s flesh, every rip, every tear, every unwilling pleasure they stole from him, this _thing_ will suffer.

The demon screams, ullulating into a higher pitch than Castiel knows humans can hear. He closes his eyes, extends his Grace, and smiles.

When the ritual is completed, Castiel returns to Bobby’s house. He crouches on the porch roof, gathering the skirts of his trench coat about his legs, careful to be soundless. He knows Dean and Sam think he simply moves quietly due to his nature, but it takes some effort.

He can feel Sam and Bobby still deeply asleep and grants them another touch of Grace. There is no reason for them to awake from happy memory and be plunged straight into darkness again. If they sleep soundly tonight, they will be able to help Dean better on the morrow.

Most of the lights in the house are off now. Two rooms in the back show lights. He knows Sam’s bedroom is dark; the boy will not wake before dawn. One, he knows, is a bathroom; a small one near the guest bedrooms. The other, then, must be Dean’s bedroom.

He resists the urge to creep closer and peer inside. He trusts Dean’s word that he will not harm himself. He has to.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "World So Cold," 3 Days Grace, _Life Starts Now._


End file.
